Spring Rain Helped Fruit Farmers, A Freeze Could Be Catastrophic
Last year spring rain helped fruit farmers unlike crop farmers. This spring freeze could be catastrophic for area fruit farmers.
According to WOOD, COVID-19 has not been very kind to the farming industry due to an economy that has been shut down and less people going to the store.
When all the rain of the spring of 2019 did big damage to crop farmers all across the state of Michigan, most fruit farmers had one of their best season's ever.
Weather reports of over night temperatures being down to the mid to low twenties can and possibly be devastating to fruit farmers. Even people who have planted flowers early will be in trouble. If you have planted some flowers already, you better cover them up Thursday night through Sunday Night. Uncover each day.
Unfortunately for fruit farmers growing peaches, apples, pears, blueberries, strawberries and grapes, those operations are just to massive to cover all the plants.
WOOD-TV spoke to the owner of Peach Ridge Farms, Todd Quick, who said, "Twenty-three or 24-degrees? That's catastrophic. I mean, for five, six hours that'd be pretty rough. It's going to burn some of that fruit off, that's for sure."
Hopefully the fruit farmers catch a break and their tree's and vines make it through these freezing temperatures, if they do the season could be alright for their farms.
This season many fruits began blooming a few weeks early due to the unusually warmer temperatures and while that is great for farmers, one night of freezing temperatures could wind up devastating but 5 nights in a row would be an absolute disaster.
Many area farmers have already been very creative on keeping their businesses going and if you are looking to shop in area's where there are not crowd's to get some of your fruits and vegetables, venture out to some of your area farm areas and farm markets and avoid the crowd while helping the farmers near you.